I’ll Miss You Dearly, San Diego

Despite all the craziness going on right now, I’m moving to Los Angeles on Monday. I found the perfect apartment in a great location and close enough to The Groundlings Theatre School and my acting studio that I can walk there. It’s got wooden floors and high ceilings; my room looking only slightly more Parisian than everywhere else in the house, what with those wall chandeliers and all.

As I’ve mentioned in my past few articles, this time locked-in at home has given me a lot to reflect on. In anticipation of my move, I keep thinking about all the things I’ll miss about San Diego and all the things I love doing the most.

I love getting cold brew and breakfast empenadas in Cardiff on a warm Sunday morning, and then walking with my dog on a cliff directly above the glittery ocean. I love the Hillcrest Farmers Market and, especially, the BBQ steam buns and Polish pirogies. I love Saturday nights in the Gaslamp District Downtown, museum-hopping in Balboa Park, exploring Verbatim Books in North Park, and weekend stay-cations at the haunted Hotel Del Coronado. Painfully hot days made bearable at the beach, the local dive bar that serves a $2.99 spaghetti dinner, the Encinitas library which gets you one of the best views of a sunset, and the widely loved homeless man named McJagger.

When I’m in LA, I’ll miss parking my car on Vulcan Avenue, where you can get a full view of Swamis Beach, the golden SRF temple and gardens, and all the busy bikers and pedestrians buzzing about. I’ll miss picking strawberries at the farms during spring time, going to the Scream Zone in October, seeing the glittering lights of Downtown SD from across the bay, and rushing to Moonlight Beach at midnight to see the glowing waves, made phosphorescent by the red algae and plankton. I’ll even miss how everyone has a favorite taco shop that they are fiercely loyal to.

Lucky for me, I have a lot of records of these places and experiences. I had learned a lesson long ago that taught me to capture these moments so I could look back on them, and I have done just that. Twice as lucky for me, if those photos, videos, and diary entries of my life here in San Diego just don’t cut it for me, I’ll be only a two and a half hour drive away.

UPDATE: MY ROOMMATE GOT CORONAVIRUS SO I HAVE DELAYED MY MOVE IN DATE FOR ONE MONTH.

I am a freelance writer and stand-up comedian living in San Diego. I speak five languages (English, French, Italian, German, and Arabic) and have lived in Europe and the Middle East for the most part of the past four years. I write about travel, art, science, and history, or anything that captures my heart.

2 comments on “I’ll Miss You Dearly, San Diego”

regardless of which city you’re in right now, I guess you wont be seeing much of the outside. Hope youre doing ok in California. Down here we’re getting increasingly strict stages of lockdown, but I think California sounds pretty severe right now